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| Axis of Evil |
| MPs on collision course with Guardian Council |
| 2002-09-02 |
| Iran's reformist government has thrown down the gauntlet to its conservative opponents with a direct assault on their powers to vet candidates for parliament and other public bodies. A government bill lodged with parliamentary business managers this week would sharply reduce the powers of a conservative-controlled constitutional watchdog body to pronounce on the fitness of candidates for election, the sources said. The bill, which has yet to be formally put on the parliamentary agenda, would limit the Guardians Council to a "supervisory role" in elections and give significant oversight powers to moderate President Mohammad Khatami. That's one that'll never fly... It would severely restrict the conservatives' ability to eliminate reformist candidates in municipal, parliamentary and presidential polls due over the next three years as they have done in previous elections. And that's why. The reformers' parliamentary majority means that the bill is likely to be passed by MPs if it is put to the vote. But it will then have to go before the very consitutional watchdog body whose powers it is intended to undermine. Iranian law gives the Guardians the right to rule on the constitutionality of all legislation approved by MPs, powers they have repeatedly used to stymie government reform measures since Khatami's election in 1997. So they're gonna File 13 it... In the event of a dispute between the Guardians and MPs, the final say goes to the Expediency Council, another watchdog body on which representatives of the pro-reform government and parliament are outnumbered by conservative jurists. But they might stand a remote chance of getting it through, if they can bribe a few here and there. The move against the Guardians' powers came as their chairman, arch-conservative Ayatollah Ahmed Janati, was out of Iran leading a delegation to Yemen. Even if it passes before he comes back, he'll probably ignore it... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |